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Tuesday, 10 May 2016

"No" Means "NO" and Small Publishers SHOULD Take Advantage.

Hmm. Not sure about that post header but....,

Four more "publicise our event!" and "Publicise this book!" emails this morning. From events that keep saying they have "no tables" and people who refuse to even mention a book of mine or add a link to their blogs. And people I've spoken to about this and explained the situation to VERY clearly.

Take, take, take.

Kick-starters. No -even if I know you.

Add to my LinkedIn connections. No. I had three hundred connections and they tried to get other connections by using MY name and how many of these "connections" ever responded to a message from me or communicated with me after linking up? ZERO. So I delete just under 300 non-connections.

Same thing with Face Book.

I'm not here to collect 'friends' and I think the fact that items posted to Face Book that should have been noted by my, uh, comic book 'friends' got no reactions proves a point. Or items posted to CBO. These "daily" or "regular" CBO viewers never saw any of the postings that affected them.

You want a book reviewed -Small Press or pro comic- just send it. Everything received for review is reviewed. And, yes, I do put people who constantly offer me review pdf files into spam. For the sixth time I had the same person try this and when I explained that we'd gone through this FIVE times before: "Oh, right. Yeah, I remember that. So the pdf is no good?" My email back explained that he was now marked as Spam. End of story.

I had hoped that with so many views coming from the US and Europe that some publishers might have taken the opportunity to send review books but that hasn't worked out. Like I write, though, that is up to the publisher. There are never any guarantees of sales but it means several thousand people a day are going to see the item.

For me, it is disappointing in that I had hoped that smaller publishers might take advantage. If you and a friend -or just you- have put together a comic how are you going to get people to know it's out there? Previews/Diamond are not going to promote you and most comic sites prefer to deal with DC, Disney (Marvel), Image and Dark Horse and if you are not one of those big publishers you "ain't worth bothering with". That is what fandom, when it existed, used to help with. How many people would have known of Harrier Comics back in the 1980s if not for fans and the fan press? Love and Rockets achieved great popularity because fanzines helped to push it.

A pity really but you can only offer the outlet not force people at bayonet point!

So, the bigger companies such as Titan and Cinebook take advantage of CBOs review all policy -as do a few others. But it was the much smaller creator I hoped might be more interested.

Once CBO stops it will be the last, if not only, blog to support the small publisher and then....well, just don't complain to me!

My Profile gives you my email address so if you want to contact me you know how.

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D-GRUPPE

About Me

THE UKs LARGEST INDEPENDENT COMICS PUBLISHER
Between 1984-1994 I worked freelance as a writer/artist/editor/agent in comics as well as comics journalism for MU Press,Blue Comet Press,Fantagraphic Books,Eros Comics,Dorne,Fleetway,IPC and others in the United States,UK and Europe. During this period I also produced large numbers of single panel gag cartoons for agencies in Germany such as Boiselle-Lohmann and Baaske Agency –these going to magazines and publications around Europe. I also worked as a freelance editor in comics and publications ranging from wildlife,astronomy and science fiction magazines.
From 1984 to present I've been self publishing comics as well as publications on a wide variety of subjects under the Black Tower banner.
I have also produced packages of work for companies in India,Hong Kong and China. I have also been working as an industry advisor for smaller companies in countries such as India,Canada,Singapore,China,Europe and the US. hoopercomicsuk@yahoo.com